Around the region

Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle News Services

Published 5:30 am, Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Energy

Weatherford will take exit charge

Weatherford International, an oil field services company that operates in 100 countries, said it expects a first-quarter charge of $40 million to $55 million to wind down businesses in countries it plans to exit.

Exit plans are being accelerated and Weatherford expects to withdraw from the involved countries by March 31, the Houston-based company said Tuesday in a filing.

The company had announced plans in September to leave countries subject to American economic and trade sanctions, including Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria.

Power

Plant possible for county's northeast

An Austin company has filed an air permit with state regulators to build a 3,500-megawatt, natural-gas-fired power plant in northeast Harris County.

Pondera Capital Management hopes to start the first phase of the project — three gas turbines and one steam turbine capable of producing about 800 megawatts — early in 2009. One megawatt can power up to 800 homes.

It would be on Lockwood Road, next to a large existing electric substation.

Creditors' case to stay where it is

Enron Corp. creditors seeking as much as $20 billion from Citigroup will have their claims decided by the judge who has overseen the former energy trader's bankruptcy case for seven years.

U.S. District Court Judge Gerard Lynch in New York denied a request Monday by the biggest U.S. bank by assets to take the so-called mega-claims case from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez and hold a jury trial.

Earnings

Harvest makes a profit again

Harvest Natural Resources, a U.S. oil company with all of its sales in Venezuela, reported a fourth-quarter profit of $65.3 million after a year-earlier loss, as the government's approval of Harvest's joint venture allowed the company to book seven quarters of oil production.

Net income was $1.78 a share, compared with a loss of $8.55 million, or 23 cents, a year earlier, Houston-based Harvest said in an unaudited filing.

Sales totaled $11.2 million after the company reported no sales in the year-ago quarter.